| Scott C. |
I am a 30-something year old attorney, and an avid fan of the Realms, having played one of my first PCs there in the 80s when the original boxed set came out. I have a suspicion as to why WOTC is doing this. They wanted to legally own the rights simply so they could shut it down and then sue anybody who tried to use anything Realms-related without a license. They then won't give that license to anybody who chooses to follow the original Realms lore.
They don't want the Realms as we know it to exist. They don't want Ravenloft, Dragonlance, or any other successful TSR campaign setting to exist. By buying the rights to these settings, and then basically ending the settings, they accomplish a critical business mission -- they silence the competition completely. Now, you can never find a true Realms product (unless its vintage), and nobody in the world will be allowed to ever publicly write, publish, author, or create ANYTHING whatsoever to do with the Realms at all, ever. Why? Because WOTC owns the full rights to those products now... but they intentionally will never use them, never allow them to see light of day again. They effectively have killed them from the commercial realm. You can freely keep playing them, and even do it online -- but you can't make a profit doing it. This way, they try to become the new big kid on the block. What they foolishy didn't realize was that the core die-hard RPG loyalists that TSR nurtured will not simply "forget" about their beloved Realms, or Krynn, or Oerth. They will simply walk away from WOTC products and keep playing and creating their own campaigns.
My PC got to visit the Hall of the Beasttamers and the School of Wizardry in that first set. He went on a mission to locate the missing Princess. He tried to find the Ring of Winter. He got to fight Red Wizards in the Pirate Isles, clash with the Cultists of the Dragon, and even commanded a ride of knights under the Purple Dragon banner during the Crusade. He traveled far and wide across those Inner Sea Lands, and even did some exploring in the old tombs of Mulhorand and Unther. Now, that PC won't be venturing into this new aberration falsely claiming to be the Forgotten Realms. Instead, he's an NPC in a Cormyr that still exists in the Realms you always knew. And future gamers will get to learn from his experiences, and perhaps get hired by him to go on some quests into Mulhorand, Unther, and even the PLATEAUS of Thay. Toril is still Toril in that campaign. And Elminster is still in Shadowdale. And a rabbit is not always a rabbit. WOTC will realize one day how unsuccessful a business decision this was. And one day, the Realms may return. For now, they are simply FORGOTTEN...
A friend of mine for over 25 years is an avid Forgotten Realms novels reader, such as those books written by by R.A. Salvatore. He stopped by last night and he summarized what wotc has done to the Forgotten Realms is nothing less than a rape, leaving what was once the realms to die in a ditch at the side of the road.
Yes. This is strong language. And shouldn't public outcry also be commensurate? My friend asked, "where does this leave people like R.A. Salvatore?"
I commented, "you know the realms stands as perhaps the largest, most detailed campaign setting ever, and a crowning achievement in rpg history."
My friend said, "you know, FOURTH EDITION seems to have been created for the benefit of wotc, NOT with the goal and benefit of bettering the game in mind. If they truly wanted to better the game for the players, they would have made incremental tweaks to the system we all know and play like PAIZO is doing. Instead they probably saw the Forgotten Realms continuity as a threat to FOURTH EDITION. And killing the realms was absolutely diabolical."
I thought about this and asked, "what do you think writers like R.A. Salvatore should do?"
He said, "Salvatore should say hey - I helped detail and popularize the Forgotten Realms world through my writing, I helped grow it into something incredible. Now you've killed it. You've basically cut the tip of my pen off."
He continued, "I wouldn't blame him if he stood up and said, 'NO, I am going to continue to write about the realms I know and love. You cannot force the art of litature to write about, and reconcile, this pen-and-paper-video-game you've created in FOURTH EDITION. It is incompatible with everything that was great about the realms."
I just sat there, thinking.... and thought whether others would agree with just how nasty and diabolical this event actually is? So would you agree? If so, should this act go quietly unnoticed?